


But at Least

by EverTurningVinyl



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Alternate Ending, Angst, Fluff, Keith/Lance - Freeform, Kick, Laith, Leith - Freeform, M/M, Second Date, Voltron, Voltron au, a little bit angsty, definitely gay, keith and lance doing bro things, klance, lance au, lance/keith - Freeform, mlm, season 8 alternate ending, totally not gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 05:24:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17016546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EverTurningVinyl/pseuds/EverTurningVinyl
Summary: SEASON 8 SPOILERSKeith and Lance are both hurting, and they don't want to replace anyone. Instead, they want to make something new.





	But at Least

Keith leaned into the comfortable (if a bit worn) armchair, tapping his fingers along his forearms absentmindedly. Second dates were almost all like the firsts, except somewhat more nerve-racking. Maybe it was due to the fact that the momentum from the last date had faded out of close memory, and both parties having fears of not getting it back. And while the existence of a second date indicated mutual interest, there was always a silent battle to estimate if the other person was bored of them yet. This particular second date was situated in a quiet café bordering the nearby public garden. All the furniture had the distinct look of being nestled no matter where they were in the room. While the passenger rooms upon Blade of Marmora cruisers weren't the most uncomfortable thing, the small luxury of an armchair had Keith relaxing near instantaneously after sitting down.

They had agreed to meet about two weeks after the first date, and Lance had suggested this place. They were meeting at around 10pm, and the time difference from the last date was purposely distanced. They both wanted to take this (whatever it was or could be) as relaxed as possible. Keith knew Lance was still hurt over Allura, and the last thing he wanted was to rush him on from that. It would be a disservice to both Lance and Allura.

No, it was most certainly decided that if both of them wanted this to succeed, it would have to be at a pace both of them were comfortable with. The small bell above the door rang, rather suddenly, and the few people present in the café, Keith included, turned to look. It was Lance, looking somewhat flustered. He glanced self consciously around the café from the front doorway, before making his way to a chair opposite Keith's.

"Sorry I'm late, I was having a shower, and just tryna generally freshen up, and I lost track of time... You weren't waiting too long were you?" He said, in a non-pausing string of explanation, tucking a stray hair behind his ear. The small gesture, and Lance's apologetic explanation in general lent Keith a smile.

"Lance, don't stress about it, it's fine, especially considering you were getting ready for meeting me in the first place." Lance gave a small nervous laugh, looking down at his hands. "Yeah... I wanted to make sure that whatever we were going to talk about, how I look shouldn't be a distracting issue." Keith smiled, a little smaller now "You look great Lance, really." Lance looked up from his hands and smiled tiredly.

"Thanks Keith"

************************

They fell into talking thereafter, nothing of immediate significance, mostly how their lives were going without the lions. Throughout their conversations they talked about everything they could think of related to the near abrupt ending of reality's fabrics. Everything except Allura that is. After a solid stream of like-minded conversation lasting a further ten minutes, Keith stretched his arms above his head, working out the fatigue in his muscles. Lance looked on with concerned interest. "Wanna take a walk?" He asked the yawning boy. Keith smiled somewhat sheepishly at him. "I'd love to. It's not you or anything I swear, It's just I.. I haven't just..  _sat down_ and been able to relax for this long without having to attend to some newfound emergency. It's.. nice.. I'm enjoying being able to." he finished with a hesitant smile. Lance gave him an understanding expression.

"I'm glad you're back on Earth. I think I spent too much time distancing myself from everyone for a solid six months after She died. I think your coming back had perfect timing." With that, putting his hand over Keith's that had been resting on the table. Keith's heart seized up for a moment, before he let it relax. He reminded himself that he was allowed to be happy goddamn it. He'd been through enough, done enough for the universe hadn't he? A small drop of peace couldn't be too much to ask. 

Lance looked at Keith's reaction, and seeing a somewhat torn look upon his face, proceeded to gather Keith's hand in his, the action enough to move Keith from his thoughts, and raise his eyes to Lance's.

"Keith, I want you to know, no matter how much I'm hurting over Allura, that I genuinely like you, and don't want you to think this is a rebound or something. that's why I want to take it slow, I don't want this to be some chaotic affair." The monologue earned a grateful look, so Lance felt it justified. "Now, shall we take that walk?" He asked, making to stand up. Keith did the same, swinging the bag he had brought onto his shoulder.

Lance had already made it halfway to the door at this stage, so Keith hurried after him. 

"When'd you get so damn fast?" He teased, the café door behind them. The air had dropped by a solid ten degrees, and the words left a disappearing cloud of breath in the air. Lance laughed, and it seemed pleasantly genuine. 

"You'd be surprised at the exercise it takes to upkeep a Juniberry plantation! Flowers take a lotta supervision ya know"

Keith scoffed, putting his hands in his pockets and gazing upwards at the moon. He began walking, thinking the garden a fair enough place to stroll and chat, even seeing a large tree with some benches up ahead. Lance hesitated, not moving for a second, before making some sort of invisible decision up in his head and continuing forward alongside Keith. Bushels of Fairy Tale pink blossoms surrounded either side of the pathway. As they neared the tree, which seemed to be the centerpiece of the garden, Keith slowed down, and noticed that Lance had stayed quiet the whole stroll here.

"Lance, you okay?" 

The words seemed to wake Lance from some castle in the air, and, raising his eyes to meet Keith's, he opened his mouth as if to respond but paused, seeming to want to choose his words carefully. 

"It's just.." He looked down at his feet, scuffing them against the pavement. "Actually, can we sit down to talk about this?"

Keith nodded, his mind tied up in knots wondering what was going on in Lance's mind. He sat at the nearest bench, Lance following suit. 

Lance adjusted himself and looked at Keith.

"I didn't want to mention it, because I didn't think it would matter, but now that we're here, I don't.. I don't think I can. It's just.. This is where I brought Allura on that date we had, the day before we left earth last year? And it's just.. I meant what I said earlier. I don't want this relationship to be influenced by me and Allura's past. So, um, this whole thing is basically to ask if we can go somewhere else?"

Keith listened and processed this. Suddenly, and rather without any warning he stood up, extending his hand to Lance.

"I may not be a mystical 10,000 year old alien who helped mend the fabric of time and space, but I **do** have a hoverbike, a full tank of gas, and a destination in mind. Care to entertain me, and join me in my late night madness?"

With a smile that hinted at genuine curiosity, Lance took the hand offered to him.

"Bold of you to assume I would ever even consider saying no."

Brandishing his keys, Keith gave him a shy, but devilish smile. 

"Before we do, just to make sure, you aren't afraid of the dark, are you?"

*********************************

Lance was on top of a hoverbike drove by what he now considered an absolute terrifying driver. 

"If we die in a crash, I'm going to kill you oh my fucking g-AH" The ending being interrupted by a very sharp turn right that caused him to constrict his arms around Keith's waist. He heard a  laugh from the driver. 

"You just haven't been out enough, what happened to the competitive-would-never-show-fear-in-front-of-mullet Lance?" He shouted back at him.

Lance said nothing, just rested his head on Keith's shoulder and thought morosely on those times. Huh, he still thought he was straight back then, how cute. Having since learned that boys seemed equally captivating, he thought he was the better for it. He certainly couldn't find himself regretting finding himself being on the back of a hover bike going about 150 kilometers, driven by the most reckless guy in existence. 

Maybe he needed to be a little reckless.

********************************

They arrived, both a little breathless, at a barely visible entrance of a forest. The bark looking near pitch-dark with the moon obscured. Keith lurched himself off the bike, and made as though to help Lance down. Lance responded to this with a scoff.

"I think I'll manage, thanks mullet" 

Keith raised his hands in mock offense. 

"Please, if you'll deign to follow me then" Turning on his heel... towards the ominous...clustered... grove. Lance scrambled off the hover bike hastily, deciding this was not a place he wanted to fall behind in. Falling in step, he inched close enough to brush off Keith's arms, thinking the fact he was in a dark, suffocating forest answered for it.

"Care to enlighten me on where we're going?" Keith just tapped the side of nose. "Can I at least get a hint?" He teased, nudging Keith's side.

"Hmm.. Alright, how's this? This is the place I'd go when everything seemed a little dark."

"..." Lance gave it a few seconds to mull over "Yeah, no, I have absolutely no idea. At this stage you could be trying to murder me for all I know."

"Aw you ruined the surprise Lance, geese."

"Gosh, I'm so sorry, I hate it when the people I'm trying to murder ruin the moment." He returned with linking his arm with Keith's. 

As they were ambling, he tried to derive any detail from his surroundings that would clue him into where he could be getting led into. Where the hell can you bring someone to in a huge dark forest where all the trees look the same anyway? 

"How far is it?"

"I'd say another hundred meters or so"

They fell into a comfortable silence, both of them figuring there wasn't any need to. Lance felt somewhat off kilter. Not like something was wrong, not really. More like he was feeling something he hadn't in a long time.

"Too long" he thought, contemplating the person he was walking alongside. Keith came to a gradual stop, and faced towards a particularly looming piece of heather. He turned to Lance.

"So the place I was thinking of, is actually through that shrub," Lance gave a mixture of a groan and a laugh.

"This had better be good, but either way, there's no way I could possibly call this date boring"

"Pfft, just go through the weird ominous heather shrub, Lance" He shot back, pulling back some of the bush to make it easier to go through. 

"How polite of you"

Keith said nothing, just pushed him forward.

Once on the other side, having shaken off the heather fragments on their clothes, Lance gave a soft sound of wonder. Keith had lead him to a small hallowed out cavity amongst the trees, each of the trees lined with some sort of fluorescent lichen, the soft glow lying softly on it's surroundings. He turned to see Keith looking at him, trying to gauge his reaction.

"Schistostega" He murmured in explanation "Also known as dragon gold... Do.. Do you like it?" 

Lance smiled and took up both of Keith's hands.

"I love it" he whispered, and, taking the brief silence, drifted his head towards Keith's in caution, so slow it would have been easy for Keith to pull away.

He didn't.

 

 

 

 


End file.
